![]() ![]() The spatiality and materiality of Beowulf’s funeral Furthermore, we can consider how these comic renditions might serve to assist in our public engagement and education, as well as prompting us to consider how future comic versions of Beowulf might do different and better versions of the funerals. I hope this exercise will be instructive regarding how different non-experts approach the poem and its death rituals, and how scholars might be missing key understandings of the poem and communicating them outside the academy. I will firstly evaluate them in relation to the poem itself, and then reflect separately on their relationship with what we understand about the variability and complexity of early medieval mortuary practices, focusing especially on cremation and barrow-burial. In this blog-post I wish to evaluate 7 comic books that retell the story of Beowulf and how they choose to represent his funeral. Yet I do feel this is a vein of missed opportunities for scholars, educators, artists and entertainers alike. Furthermore, many do not consider in any detailed way may how these funerals operated at all. After all, Beowulf was nothing if not a fabulous story to be told as a performance in a hall recalling legendary deeds of heroes living centuries earlier. Where do they go for inspiration and ideas regarding the significance of the funerals as well as how they operated in technological and ritual terms? While I don’t forgive it, I can understand why many do not bother to link their renditions to early medieval archaeological and historical frameworks for understand death, burial and commemoration, preferring instead to work in an fantastical realm conflating Norse mythology and legend with fantasy medievalisms. I’m therefore very sympathetic when it comes to popular translators and creatives attempting to negotiate the early medieval text for new audiences since often they’ve had to work without any useful academic guidance. ![]() ![]() Partly also it could be because early medieval archaeologists and historians have themselves either discounted the poetic representations of open-air pre-Christian funerals as anything from mere whimsy to direct fossilisations of pre-Christian elite mortuary theatrics, without any careful consideration of mortuary theory or indeed the detail of what we do now know about variability in early medieval mortuary data.Īgainst this somewhat dismal and messy background, I feel all early medieval disciplines have failed to actively and creatively engage with the potential of visual representations to critically research with, and educate with, the funerals of Beowulf. This might be in part because few of them have archaeological and historical training or read/listen to archaeologists and historians regarding our knowledge of real-world early medieval funerary practices. Beowulf’s burning and barrow-burial conclude his life and the story.Įqually though, I’ve also been captivated by how ill-equipped early medieval linguistic and literary specialists have been in attempting interpretations of its funerals, in and of themselves, as parts of the story as a whole and early medieval cultures and society. The funerals punctuate the poem and configure its storyline. I’ve been fascinated by the funerals in Beowulf and specifically the funeral of Beowulf, as recorded in the famous epic Anglo-Saxon poem.
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